


Stumbling is not falling

by JoCarthage



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-23
Updated: 2014-05-23
Packaged: 2018-01-26 05:32:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1676516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoCarthage/pseuds/JoCarthage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers. Charles wouldn't let Erik walk away injured. He takes him to the Mansion and helps him get better. Their relationship reorients and evolves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stumbling is not falling

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger warning for sexual assault imagery, though no physical assault occurs.
> 
> Spoilers for the movie, obvs. I'm going to keep working on this and updating here. I've written them before (they were the first fic I posted) but there is so much more to do with them now. The title both refers to one of my favorite Malcolm X quotes--"Stumbling is not falling." and to Charles' line in the movie about recovering from stumbling. Given Magneto was modeled on Malcolm X, the quote is fun on a few levels.

“I will meet you at the jet.”

“But Charles—“

“I can make it on my own, thank you Hank.”

Charles pulled himself into the rumpled chair and began to work his way through the opened path between pieces of stadium and presentation-stage debris as Hank stared before turning and waking away. Both the chair and the path had been cleared by the power of Magneto’s mind, when Charles had raped it for the TV cameras

He shook himself, focusing on his pulling mission. He was nauseous and felt the blood trickling into his eyes through his thick hair. The chair wobbled and struggled, but Charles kept going. He knew where he was he needed to be.

—

Erik was crumpled behind the dumpster on Connecticut NW and 15th. His hand was feebly pushing against the hole in his neck, but the blood oozed out, pumping with each slowing beat of his heart. Charles slid to his knees in the insulation and chunks of concrete in front of the damaged man, holding his upper-body up on trembling arms.

“Please,” he muttered, “Please my friend,”

He pulled himself close enough to Erik to see his chest still moving. He could hear the ambulance sirens writhing towards the mess Erik had made around the White House. He leaned his shoulder against Erik’s stilling chest, balancing to pull his hand up to press against the man’s neck. The slick heat of his blood made Charles’ skin crawl, but he pressed on.

“Charles,” he heard him whisper, but he shushed him, holding his hand tight, resting his head on his friend’s leather-covered shoulder.

“Oh, my friend,” he said as Erik tried to increase the pressure on his own neck, hand fluttering and weak. It wasn’t enough, and Charles could feel him cooling.

“You should leave,” Erik said. “They’ll find me and then—“

“I’m not leaving you, and you're not leaving again. I need to help you.”

“No, Charles. You cannot, you are not welcome in my mind.”

“I am sorry my friend, but I cannot lose you again.” He could feel Erik struggle against him, but his mind was as overtaxed as his body. Charles fell into his friend’s soaring and swirling matrix, assuming control where he knew he had to right to. He forced him to breath shallowly, to press his hand harder to his neck. Mind intent on controlling his body's response to pain, he faintly felt himself make Erik lift him up, standing with him in bridal carry. He poured every piece of strength he’d been hiding since the draft into driving Erik’s feet, one step after another. This was one young body he could save.

When they got within sight of the jet, he didn't have to fake being faint in Erik's arms. He had felt Erik retreat, mind faint from pain and exhaustion, spirit impotently enraged at being taken from his own body. He made his mouth say: “I found him this way, let me get him to safety.” 

Hank’s shocked face was enough to spur: “We need to go.” in his best approximation of Erik’s gruff-commander’s voice.

He made Erik walk to the back of the jet where the medical kit was, then let forced him to lower his body down, only letting him slip into unconsciousness fully once he was flat. Charles maneuvered a big pad of gauze out of the first aid kit and tape it around Erik’s neck, trying to undo the damage he’d done by making him walk to safety. Lying down the flow reduced, but he was terribly pale.

“Professor, where are we going?” Hank called from the sky-bound cockpit. Charles didn't lift his eyes from Erik's face when he replied:

“Home, Hank, bring us home.”


End file.
